By RENFIELD

The model company Aurora will always have a special place in the hearts of what Ron Adams of The Monster Bash calls "Monster Boomers"--post World War Two-generated baby boomers who grew up in the horror halcyon days of the late Sixties. For the Aurora company, that had previously specialized in supplying plastic components for a number of automotive and military applications, took a bold step. In 1961, it issued a plastic model kit of Universal Studio’s classic Frankenstein's Monster.

It was a graveyard smash with kids starved for monster fun, and the company began issuing other classic Universal monsters that junior monster fans could build themselves with model glue and adorn with model paint. Dracula, the Mummy, the Wolfman, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Bride of Frankenstein, and other creepy character kits were produced by Aurora and flew off the shelves into the hands of enraptured kiddies. The issue of the Aurora monster kits reached its zenith in 1965 and then tapered off in 1966, when the company issued a non-Universal horror character, the "Forgotten Prisoner of Castle Maré." Although Aurora later issued other monster kits (including glow-in-the-dark kits), and other companies joined the boo-bandwagon, the early Sixties kits were the ones that all but defined (along with Famous Monsters Of Filmland magazine) the wonderful movie monster nostalgia of the Sixties.

Recently, some of the members of the "Monstermovies" discussion group indulged in some fond memory-swapping of what it was like to own and build the classic monster kits. They kindly allowed us to reprint those golden monster model memories below. Now, just sit back, imagine it’s 1965, you’re a grade school kid, and you’ve just arrived home from the local five-and-dime store with a new Aurora monster model kit in hand…

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When I was about five years old (in 1964) my dad and mom bought me the classic Aurora Frankenstein model. I was in heaven...fascinated. Not even knowing at that point it was an image of Karloff from Bride Of Frankenstein, though the walking on the grave wasn't. What a cool model. Even though it was my first model and I was only five, I was mixing colors. I mixed green and white for the face and hands, giving it that mellow corpse look! I loved that thing. Dracula and the Phantom followed in their long boxes. Years went by and I was eleven. The glow kits were coming out! I bought them all one at a time...Wolf Man, Creature, King Kong, Hunchback... So were all the neighborhood kids. It was monster heaven. The Beatles were on the transistor radio that sat on the picnic table in front a a friends house. We all hunkered over the table working on our respective Aurora masterpieces. Inside, early cable TV was providing Channel 9 out of New York City, which played anything from Night Key to Radar Men From The Moon at 4:30 on "Thriller Theatre" (to be changed to "Science Fiction Theatre" at some point). It was on everyday after school. We had it on load on my friends TV with the sound coming through the screen door to the picnic table. If we heard a great music cue from Hans Salter or the like, we'd rush to the screen door and peer in at the TV, hoping to catch a glimpse of....the monster! Then...we got older. Some of my friends burned their models....mine, sadly, just collected dust as I got to Jr. High age....girls and Jr. High dances. Man, was I an idiot. Over time, my models seemed to just vanish, I can't remember the circumstances; perhaps my mom cleaning and realized I didn't play with them much anymore. Now, I look back with regret at those cool things that were part of my makeup, who I was and would always be. I've since began slowly recapturing those peeks at my past. My dear friend Gino gave me a Wolf Man model, I've painted with good ol' Testers paint and put together with Testers glue. The smells alone can whirl you on a rampaging flash back through time. Then, a great friend Craig helped me locate a Frankenstein.....and the big-hearted Sorko got me a Creature. Ah, it's great to still be a kid....a Monster Kid.

--Ron Adams

This brings back memories, not of my youth but of my former TV show, Creature Feature in Washington, DC. When we returned to the air on a weekly basis in 1984, I had a mostly bare dungeon set. To decorate it, we offered custom Gore De Vol nightshirts in exchange for any donated props. What I got was a complete set of Aurora monster models in pristine condition. I had remembered them from my youth, but at that time I was into planes and ships. For many years they acted as bumper material and SFX props, but the setting up and taking down of the set pieces took their toll with many broken and missing parts. When the show came to an end, I was left with the tattered and torn remains of a once fine collection and lots of regret. I put them into storage for several more years and finally gave them to my unofficial archivist, Gene Crowell, who has since restored them to their original splendor. I still enjoy seeing them when I visit suburban Maryland.

--Count Gore De Vol

--Tracy Tupman

I had them all! I was very fortunate and had a really cool dad who bought me anything in the horror line that came out. Each month I'd get a new supply of FM and Creepy and always wound up with the coolest toys and models. I had the Marx Universal Monsters set, that featured Frankenstein, The Creature, Wolfman, Phantom, Hunchback, and Mummy. I played with those toys all the time. I was so happy to see that Uncle Milton put out a recast of these a few years back. Anyone interested in seeing what they look like can see the Glow-In-The Dark set that I have on the toy page of Monster-Mania.  As far as the models go, had them all too! I even had the cool guillotine model that worked, an iron maiden model and all those great $1.99 long Aurora boxed models with the great artwork. Luckily Polar Lights models is slowly but surely re-issuing a lot of those monster models. They've just put out the Creature again, complete in the old long box with that fantastic art! "Monster Mania" also carried those if anyone is interested. I can remember looking at the ads for the 8mm horror films that ran in each FM, wishing to get a projector and those films someday. God bless VCRs, laser discs and DVD!!!!! (And Creepy Classics!--a 10 year old horror fan's dream come true!)

--Dave Hagan

The Aurora models were my passion! I, too, started off with Frankenstein, in the early '60s, followed by Dracula, the Wolf Man and others. I collected all of them, and even got all the duplicate glow-in-the-dark versions. They were my treasures! I even saved many of those great Aurora box covers! I kept collecting up until Aurora introduced some smaller, snap-together models (These included Frankenstein and a mad doctor--I think he was called Dr. Doom or something like that). What I enjoyed about the snap-together models was that you could buy a "lab" scene with an operating table (it reminded me of the "House of Frankenstein" movie set! Like Ron, my interests shifted when I reached high school...in time, I gave all my models (each one perfectly preserved and painted to detail) to my nephew, who had "monster wars" and broke them to pieces. That's a painful memory now! I haven't really gone "back" to the models, although I've thought about it a lot. I have, however, recently purchased the excellent Sideshow classic monster figures--The Frankenstein Monster and the Wolf Man, which are fantastic (and only about $15 a piece!). If you grew up with Aurora monster models and haven't seen these Sideshow figures, be sure to check them out!

--Bob Pelligrino

I was born about 10 years too late to actually purchase any of the original Aurora models. Fortunately my Dad collected them and has passed on to me several built ups. I remember having a choice of one each week to display on my dresser as a kid. We still have to glue pieces back on from time to time but for the most part they are in great shape.

-- Dustin Jablonski

Speaking of Aurora's Monster Scenes series of (very cool) kits, Dave Metzger of Polar Lights has categorically ruled out re-releasing those kits. (They also ruled out re-releasing The Guillotine kit.) Basically, they feel the kits would be offensive to too many people. If you recall, when the kits were originally released, some parents found the torture and violence theme inappropriate fodder for kids. Feminists derided the availability of a kit of a female figure called "The Victim." (It was eventually retitled as "Dr. Deadly's Daughter," I believe.) Aurora didn't help things with their advertising campaign with blurbs like "Rated "X" For eXcitement!" To compound the bad timing, Nabisco had just purchased Aurora and was sensitive about their family image. The fiasco led to the dismissal of many long-time Aurora employees. As for me, I say crank those babies out! I'll buy two of each.

--Gary P.

Even though there are many resin and vinyl kits produced today that are far more detailed and accurate, gimme those original Aurora Monster Kits any day! They were (and still are) just so much more..fun. Sure, the likenesses weren’t always accurate. The scale not always correct. But who cared!? Look! The Mummy comes with a cobra! Open the other box and you not only get the Creature figure, but part of his grotto, a lizard, a snake and a Creature skeleton hand to boot! Who remembers studying that wonderful Bama box art, trying to duplicate the blood on his claws found there with Testors Gloss on the actual model? Letting your imagination fly away with the possibilities of just exactly how that blood got there in the first place? And there isn’t a kid around who ever built the Phantom model that didn’t wonder about the story behind the prisoner at his feet. I always wondered about the house on the Wolf Man box art--were the owners of that house "next"? These weren’t any stiffly posed, static statues...these were the action figures of the sixties monster kid generation, fully posable and articulated only through the wonder of a child’s eye and imagination. You just had to be there...

--Sorko

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…And this brings up Renfield’s own monster model kit memories! Growing up as a typical suburban kid in the Sixties, I and my friends were caught up in monster mania. We collected cool stickers and cards bearing both movie monster images and "monster" drawings, begged and pleaded with our parents to take us to the drive-in to see monster movies (we usually had to settle for some Disney flick), and used every sneaky device to view the late-night monster movie shows on TV. But the ultimate was collecting the Aurora model kits. Between myself and my friends, we bought and bought them all…I had the "Big Three"--Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, and the Wolfman. Smells of model glue and paint still linger in my memory when I recall putting those kits together and painting them (lots of red paint for blood, of course). We kids would get together with our models, pour through Famous Monsters Of Filmland, and speculate on all the great-looking (and -sounding) monster movies that somehow never came to our neighborhood theaters or our local television channels. This boyish love of movie monsters lingered for years, even after the models were consigned to the attic and, finally, while I was away in college, to the garage sale.

Even if you aren’t creaky enough to have lived during the Sixties monster craze, you can still own nice reproductions of those monster kits—if you have a deep pocket, you can even buy the originals. Either way, those monster models kits are well worth owning…just be certain you don’t paint Dracula’s face green! Yuck! I still can’t believe Pat Bushart did that…